Related

A stellar art school graduation project is one thing — turning the idea into a viable business is another thing altogether.

Lisa Fraser’s Snug Vest, a deep-pressure vest that comforts children with autism, has not only won multiple design awards, it has been mentioned in Forbes magazine and Fraser is on B.C. Business Magazine’s inaugural 30 Under 30 list.

It’s been a long and eye-opening journey for Fraser, 26, who graduated in industrial design from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in the spring of 2010.

Fraser designed her user-controlled inflatable vest after years of teaching swimming and art classes to special-needs students. She learned that kids with autism calm down when they are hugged or feel a sensation of pressure, but existing products had major disadvantages: weighted vests put downward pressure on young shoulders, stretchy undergarments are difficult to put on and take off, and stationary devices are large, awkward and expensive machines.

“I wanted to design something that would help children with special needs in their daily lives and promote inclusion at the same time,” Fraser said.

Excellent school project or not, six months after graduating, Fraser was looking for a job.

She decided it was time to see if Snug Vest could become a viable commercial product. She bartended at night and spent her days researching the potential business. She networked obsessively, going to three or four events a week. She took a market validation course and connecting with three mentors through ACETECH, a non-profit training organization that matches early-stage technology CEOs with mentors.

She learned about patenting, got an National Research Council IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) adviser, incorporated Squeezease Therapy Inc. and plunged in by fall 2011. She hired another recent Emily Carr grad, Lucia Hsieh, to help her, and the two women sewed prototypes in her living room. “I had three roommates. We had our sewing machines out. It was fun in the early prototyping stages.”

Fraser talked to everyone.

She soon learned that the most practical advice came from entrepreneurs whose businesses are just slightly ahead of hers.

She became an expert at accessing government funding — “There are no straight answers, no step-by-step,” she said. To date, she has secured $200,000.

The first step, she said, is figuring out which government official to talk to. “It takes months to find the right one. I know who all of them are, now, in the Lower Mainland and what type of company they deal with. If it’s a gaming company, talk with this guy. It’s not listed somewhere.”

Then comes establishing a relationship. “It took over six months just for them to trust me, this young girl.”

Applying for grants meant learning to speak the right language.

“It’s so different from the way an industrial designer thinks,” Fraser said. “Industrial design is very messy. Kind of like converge, diverge, come up with lots of ideas, then you narrow it down. A lot of blue sky thinking.”

Now she had to talk sales, finance and engineering. “You have to have a hypothesis and a whole bunch of testing, investigation and research and development, and you come to a conclusion in the end.”

She’s learned that interns need very clear tasks and directives, and that even MBA students can write pie-in-the-sky business and marketing plans.

Last winter, Fraser and Hsieh decided to test the market with a soft launch even though the product was not completely ready and they hadn’t fully sourced materials. Pre-order demand was so overwhelming, they did a 400-unit manufacturing run, promising delivery in six to eight weeks. It took them four painfully long months to deliver.

“Me and Lucia, we didn’t actually sleep for those four months. We were in the office. We had sleeping bags on the ground. We would take two-hour naps then wake each other up,” she said. “We were both burned out in the spring with nervous breakdowns. She left the company and I was in bad mental shape. There’s so many ups and downs.”

“The learning curve has been so unbelievably steep,” Fraser said. “What I’ve learned is you really have to stop and celebrate the wins.”

She’s benefited from six or seven key mentors, mostly through B.C. Innovation Council’s mentor program. Mentors have helped her find key contacts in the medical industry, helped her understand intellectual property and patenting, and taught her to never give up and to organize tasks based on function such as finance, marketing and delivery.

Fraser is among a small group of young entrepreneurs who’ve been particularly successful at finding mentors, said Dawn Wood, program manager of MentorshipBC, a new, free online tool for helping small business owners find mentors.

When Fraser’s many mentors have differing views on key strategies, such as when to seek investors, she simply takes in all the information and mulls. Her office is at the Venture Labs accelerator program and she’s matched with an adviser/mentor there as well.

Snug Vest has gone through 200 to 300 iterations as Fraser has learned realities of production, tooling and cost. Along the way, she’s gained deep respect for salespeople and learned to use words like “value proposition.” She’s gained familiarity with “budgeting and return on investment thinking,” and, as an artist, has really suffered through the number crunching. “The bookkeeping, oh my god, that’s really crazy and tedious stuff.”

Fraser has sold 500 Snug Vests to date. The vest is sold online and through a Quebec distributor’s special-needs equipment catalogue. Bootstrapped with some initial help from her family, Fraser is now starting to look into private investors to help her increase her online marketing, attend major trade shows and provide sample vests to key influencers.

The vest has received the prestigious Red Dot design award, as well as a community award from New York-based Autism Speaks, a world-leading autism advocacy organization. The Snug Vest ($395) is fully covered for B.C. children with autism under the provincial Autism Funding Unit.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Steep road from art school project to viable business

Video

Today's Headline Videos

Best of Postmedia

The mystery of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 has captivated the world for more than four years, but for two retired Ottawa air accident investigators, it all comes down to six seconds. And the evidence from those final moments before the Boeing 777 disappeared into the Indian Ocean is irrefutable, say Larry Vance and Terry Heaslip. “We […]

At first she was tearful, then she was horrified. The young woman had just discovered a cellphone that was recording her as she took her clothes off in an Ottawa doctor’s examining room. Confronted, the doctor insisted that the video was for “training purposes” and deleted it in front of her. Incredulous, she refused to […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.